New Zealand’s largest training centre the Cambridge Jockey Club has been temporarily shut down.
With up to 1000 thoroughbreds trained on the premises at peak times, it is the largest centre in Australasia but the committee has adhered to updated industry protocols and reacted swiftly to cease training.
“The Cambridge track is officially closed,” Cambridge Jockey Club chief executive Mark Fraser-Campin told NZ Racing Desk.
“There were some key rules that came through on Thursday from the New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Directive that impacted on even the limited training options.”
The rules referred to in the NZTR directive said: Light ridden exercise of a horse is permitted only when; the trainer is unable to identify an agistment property that has capability to accept the horse within a 1-hour drive; the horse is boxed, due to there being no suitable yards or paddocks on the trainer’s facility; and the stable lacks a horse walker or treadmill.
“When those protocols came out we read them and we believed as a Club the right thing to do was not stay open and as such we called a Committee Meeting and closed the tracks,” Fraser-Campin said.
“Everyone in New Zealand is trying to do the right thing and I think we will get through the virus outbreak more swiftly than some other nations.”
